Signaling system for toy railroads



Aug. 6, 1940. P. c. BAGNASCO SIGNALING SYSTEM FOR TOY 'RAILROADS 2Sheets-Sheet l Filed Oct.' '20, 192,8

v INVENTOR. C1396 flsco PHIL 1P ATTORNEES' 6, 0- P. c. BAGNASCO:2.210.747

V smumma SYSTEM rqn T0! summons Filed Oct. 20, 19218 Sheets-Sheet 2llllllllllllllllll H n gym u m 1| ymn mun" E t i I z V s n A-L-Ja v 1643 37 25 PHIL/P 0.294 A/fisco ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 6, 1940 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE 2,210,141 SIGNALING SYSTEM non TOY mum-Ans Philip0. Bagnasco, Williston mi, N. Y.

Application October 20, 1938, No. 235,943

1 Claim. (chess-s1) This invention relates to improvements in signalingsystems and has particular reference to a block signaling system fortoy. electric railroads. An object of the invention is to provide animproved. system of simple and practical construction wherein a seriesof signals of different characteristics at each of two or more stationsare automatically controlled by the positions of trains on thetrackwayof the system, and in which the speed of a train approaching anystation. may be regulated in accordance with the signals set at saidstation.

The inventive idea involved is capable of receiving. a variety of.expressions some of which,

- and contact member carried by the truck of the toy locomotive.

Figure 4 is a top plan view, partly broken away and shown in section, ofthe apparatus at one of the stations.

Figure 5 is a, vertical longitudinal section through the apparatus ofFig. 4, and, r

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a modified form of rail contact memberemployed in the system. v

The system illustrated in the drawings comprises a trackway consistingof the two wheel rails II, II and a third rail I! from which the motorof "a toy railroad train receives its current for operation. It may beassumed that the truck I! (Fig. '1) carries the locomotive of a trainand, in conjunction with this truck, there is provided a contact memberll carrying the rollers I! which engage said third rail for the purposeof conveying current to the motor of the train. For convenience inillustration, the trackway is shown in a straight line but itwill beunderstood, of course, that the same may take, a circular or other form.The trackway is, like in standard practice, made up of a plurality ofsections capable of being joined together to form the complete trackway.Two or more signaling' stations may be associated with the trackwaydepending upon the length thereof, and, as shown. in Fig. .1, two suchstations A and B are shownzzat separated points. The trackway is'divided into blocks two of which are indicated at' Al and BI, with thestation A controlling the signals for block A! and station 3 regulatingthe signals for block BI and also controlling certain signals at stationA. The blocks are determined by insulated sections IB and ll of thethird g rail It, said sections being associated with the f stations Aand B, respectively.

The apparatus which is included in each of the signaling stations properis illustrated in Figs.

4 and 5 as comprising a base It upon which, is 10' mounted a cover I!and a signal tower the casing II of which has disposed therein the threevisible signals 22, 23 and 24 which may be green, amber, and red,respectively. An insulated ex-' tension II of the base It projectstherefrom ll beneath the rails l0 and l2 and carries clamps 26 at itsouter end engageable 'with the third rail I! so as to cooperate with aneccentric lockinglever 2'! carried by the extension and engageable withthe track Ill for securing the base II in fixed relation to thetrackway.

Enclosed within the cover l9 and supported upon the base II is a plate28 which carries two pairs of electromagnetic devices, such as solenoids2., 30 and ll, 32. The solenoids 01' the two ,5

pairs are opposed to each other and have the common cores a, 34,respectively, provided with laterally extending pins 36 and 38. Aswitching device is associated with each pair of solenoids forcontrolling various operations of the system. 80

The device which operates in conjunction with the solenoids il, 30includesa bracket 31 in which -is rockingly mounted a movable contact IIin the form of. a bell crank lever, with one of the arms thereofengageable with the fixed contact I! 85 and the other arm adapted forengagement with the fixed contact 40 when said movable contact II isalternatelyrocked about its pivot in oppo-' site directions byengagement of the pin 35 with the then verticalarm of said movablecontact. .Said operation occurs when either one of the solenoids II orll is energized to move thecore' a in the desired direction. Theswitching device associated with the solenoids II, 32 is ofsimilarconstruction and includes the locking 4| switch contact 4|adapted to be actuated by the pin 38 for alternate engagement with thepairs of fixed contacts 42 and 43. v

In addition to thelabo've described apparatus,

means are associated'with station B, which may l0 be designated'as thecontrol station as distinguished from station A, for controlling certainsignals at both stations and for also governing the condition of thethird rail it. Such means embodies the insulated sections I4 and II(Fig. ll

1) arranged at suitably spaced intervals alongance with the lengthof-the trains on the tracka way. For example, it may be desired that theoperation to be performed by the first contact element beyond thestation B, which element has its equivalent at 44 (Fig. 1), shall notoccur until the last car of the train has moved beyond the insulatedsection I! at station B. This result may be accomplished by adjustingsaid .con-.

tact shoe 91 to a distance from the section |I equal to the length ofthe longest train being operated. In the same sense, when an adjustablecontact 41 is employed at the section 45, the same may be spaced anydesired distance from the insulated section 44.

The operation of the system will now be described. Under the assumptionthat a train is approaching the signaling station A and is in block Al,and that a preceding train has cleared block Bl, the green signal 22 atstation A is illuminated so that the first train may proceed into blockBl. By reference to Fig. 2, which shows the diagram for the circuits atstation A as well as at station .3, it will be seen that under the abovenamed condition a circuit is established for the lamp 22 extending fromthe positive side of battery 49 through the conductor 59, the movablecontact 38, the fixed contact 39, the movable contact 4|, the upperfixed contact 42, the lamp 22, and from thence to ground through thegrounded plate 28, the conductor 5| joining said plate with the rail N,and back to the other side of battery through the conductor 52 alsoconnected to said rail. A branch of said circuit also extends from themovable contact 4| through the lower fixed contact 42 and the conductor53 to the third rail l2 which is thus energized with the full voltagefrom the battery 49 to operate the motor of said first train. When thecontact element H of the train truck l3 bridges the energized third railin block A, the green signal 22 at said station is extinguished, the redsignal is lighted, the third rail in block Al is deenergized and theamber signal 23 at the preceding station (not shown) is illuminated. Thebridging of said rail l2 and the section It continues the previouslydescribed circuit from the conductor 53 through the contact element 14,the conductor 54 connected to the insulated section It, and from thencein one direction through the conductor 55 through the winding of thesolenoid 29'back to the other side of battery 49 through the conductors5| and 52. Said circuit is established in another direction from theconductor 54 through the conductor 58, the terminal post 51 andconductor 58 back to said preceding signaling station where thesolenoids 39 and 3| are energized, in amanner to later appear, to lightthe amber lamp 23 at the latter station. The energization of thesolenoid 29 moves the core 33 to the left, as shown in Fig. 2, therebycausing the movable contact 39 tobe disengaged from the contact 39andengaged with the contact 49. when so engaged the circuit for the redsignal24 is established through said contacts 38, 49

and the lamp 24 over the previously described path back to the negativeside of the battery 49-. The switching of said contact 38 from contact39 also removes the source of electrical energy from the third rail ofblock Al so that a following train will be stopped should it enter saidblock.

With the above conditions existing, the first train moves through blockBi and when its contact element |4 bridges the third rail of said blockand the insulated section l1 the same operation as previously describedtakes place with the result that the signal at station B is changed fromgreen to red, thethird rail in block BI is deenersized, and the amberlamp 23 at station. A is illuminated by energization of the solenoids 39and 3| through the circuit including the conductors 56 and 58. Theeifect of the energization of said solenoids at station A will bedescribed by reference to Fig. 2 which is illustrative of the controlcircuits at said station. It will be recalled that before the firsttrain reached station B, the red signal at station A was illuminatedwith the contacts 39 and 49 in engagement and the contact 4| in theposition shown in Fig. 2. However, when said circuit through theconductor 58 and the windings of the solenoids 39 and 3| at station A isestablished, said solenoids are simultaneously energized to move theirrespective cores 33 and 34 in opposite directions with the result thatthe contact 38 at station A is restored into engagement with the contact39, and the contact 4| is operated to engage the contacts 43. A circuitis thereby closed from the battery 49 through contacts 38, 39, contact4| and upper contact 43 to ground through the lamp 23. Also, through thelower contact 43, battery is connected to the variable resistance 59-and conductor 53 to the third rail of block Al This variable resistance59 reduces the voltage now connected to said third rail with the resultthat any following train entering block AI will have its speed reducedin accordance with the decrease in said voltage, and this decreasedspeed of the train will be continued until the then existing conditionof the third rail in block AI is altered. The movable contact 33 atstation B having been disengaged from the contact 39, the battery 49 isdisconnected from the third rail in block BI and said rail isdeenergized.

As the first train proceeds from this point and preferably after thelast car of said train passes over the insulated section the contactelement 4 bridges the insulated section 44, or engages with theadjustable insulated contact 41 (Fig. 6). -A circuit is therebyestablished from the positive side of battery" through the conductor 59,the third rail l2, contact element I4, section 44, conductor 6|, and thewindings of solenoids 3|, 39 and back to battery through the conductors5| and 52. Said solenoids are simultaneously energized as previouslydescribed with the result that contact 33 is reengaged with contact 39and contact 4| is engaged with contacts 43. In a manner now obvious, thered light 24 at station B is extinguished, the amber light 23 isilluminated and the battery 49 is connected through contacts 4|, 43 andresistance 59, to'the third rail. II inblock Bl so that a followingtrain entering said 7 block will have its speed reduced. At the sametime, the circuit for energizing the solenoids 3|, 39 is also extendedthrough the conductor 92 to the terminal post 93 and from thence, overthe conductor 64 to the solenoid 32 at station A, and from thence tobattery with the result that solenoid 32is energized to light the greenlamp 22' at station A in the same manner as will presently 15 operationat station B.

appear in connection with the description of the The first train newproceeds until it reaches the insulated section positioned at a suitabledistance from section 44. Upon bridging of the third rail and saidsection 45, the circuit through the conductorill and said third rail iscontinued over the conductor and through the solenoid 32 at station B toground and back to the other side of battery 49 through conductors 5|and 52. The solenoid 32 is thus energized to rock the contact 4| out ofengagement with the contacts 43 and into engagement with the contacts42. Whereupon, with contacts 38, 39 engaged by the previous energizationof solenoid 30 the originally described circuit for the green lamp 22 isestablished and full voltage is applied from the battery 49 to thesection of the third rail in block Bl so that if a following train isnow in said block its speed will be increased.

What is claimed is:

In a toy railroad signaling system, a trackway and a third rail, saidthird rail having short,

spaced, insulated control sections toi'orm a plurality of blocks alongsaid third rail, a source of electric energy for supplying current to.said trackway, to said blocks and to each of said short insulatedsections, a signal station for each of said blocks, signals at each ofsaid stations, a plurality of electromagnetic devices includingswitching means which remain in their last operated position whendeenergized at each of said stations and which are connected to saidcontrol sections for variously controlling said signals, the switchingmeans of said electromagnetic devices also connecting said source to anddisconnecting the same from the block in the rear of the associatedstation, means including the control sec-: tion at each of said stationsfor controlling one of the signals at the preceding station through theelectromagnetic devices thereat, a separate short insulated section insaid third'rail beyond the last signal in advance of one station andconnected' to a first one ofthe electromagnetic devices thereat and to adifferent one at the preceding station for controlling one of thesignals at the former station and for also controlling a difierentsignal 'at said preceding station, and additionally controlling saidswitching means through said electromagnetic devices, and a secondseparate short insulated section in said third rail beyond the firstnamed separate section and connected to a second electromagnetic deviceat said former station for controlling still another signal thereat, allof said short insulated sections being energized by the passage of atrain thereover whereby said electromagnetic devices will be temporarilyenergized.

PHILIP C. BAGNASCO. a0

